Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Has anyone tried getting a new replacement unit from Dell before?

I'm getting somewhat fed up with this unit of mine. I've had the whole motherboard changed out before due to unexplainable thermal throttling when temperatures are fine. And now I'm getting a second wave of problems that include: USB port with poor contact, fuzzy lines on LCD display, a squeaky spacebar key, a half-stuck left-click button. So many problems in the span of four months. This laptop has never been dropped or whatsoever, just normal usage at home and in school.

If the poor Dell guy has to replace all these parts, I'd rather request Dell to build a new unit if it's possible. Dell in my country doesn't resell refurbished units, and my unit had quite a bad-looking internal (after removing the back cover, which was warped from day 1), makes me wonder if this unit was a recycled one.

 

without providing specifics, if you know how to mess with them, the complete care warranty means you can get one whenever you like.

 

when I hybernate my new E6400 (P8600,Vista ultimate 64, HDD: momentus seagate 5400.4 250GB,Intel X4500HD, WXGA+, 4GB RAM, 6-cell battery) the screen switches off immediately but the power goes off only after at least 4-5 mins. I was wondering if anyone else is experiencing the same, or if there is something I should do to sort this out.

thanks

 

If you have in home tech service with your warranty, Dell will build you a new system, until you get it in hand, you may keep the system in hand. Once you get the new system, put back the old one in the same box and ship it back (Dell provides a pre-paid shipping label via e-mail on the first day you call for a replacement system).

In result you always have a system in hand.

That was my experience with Dell Canada.

 

I believe that is normal. The laptop first goes to sleep, then several minutes later goes to hibernation mode.

It is desirable to go to sleep first, since the wake-up from sleep is very fast, while from hibernation takes quite a bit more time. There is a setting in the Power Options to change the sleep/hibernation behavior. And, of course, there are different settings for battery or for AC operation.

 

It happened again! grr.

A couple other questions/comments:

1)is there supposed to be an insert for the SC card slot?

2)I figured out that i get weird errors in windows audio (ive reported them previously) when the computer is on anything less than high performance mode. What the heck?

 

Kazaam, did you replace your system already?

 

My battery already went down from 57720 mWh to 52000 mWh capacity (and wear level 9%) after 6-7 uses. I charged the battery a few times from 70% or 30%. Is that ok or should I let it drain to 10% and then plug the ac adapter?

 

I believe your supposed to let it drain down to about 80% before recharging. Try doing that a few times.

 

no, these are all software related problems or problems other people have had or have. everything is actually going quite well to be honest, because the problems are so minimalistic.